Restaurant Insider

It was a miserably cool, long, neverending, agonizing spring. We've all recovered; those few weeks of 80 degrees were especially appreciated by kids and sprinklers alike, not to mention those of us itching to jump into Lake Washington some time in 2011.

The summer is winding down, but the food scene is heating up again with that new-season vigor. Here are a few upcoming events that will make the departure of the summer bounty not nearly as depressing.
Sunday, September 18: BLEND

I've been thinking a lot about social media (Twitter, Facebook), how people use them, what they choose to share and what they don't. That's because I can't share most of what I do (most importantly, what I eat) every day because of the job that I have.

It's not easy to distinguish oneself as a brewer in this microbrew-soaked city. But Ryan Hilliard is off to a good start before his Ballard brewery, Hilliard's Beer, is even open.
Hilliard, thanks to a relatively new small-scale packaging machine called the ACS 3.5 (by Cask Brewing Systems), is putting his prize-winning home brew-turned-professional-project craft beer into cans.

Jamie Boudreau finally gets to eat his cake.
A Canadian who escaped a far more sober life as a would-be physiotherapist, he has established himself as one of the Northwest's most respected bartenders, with stints at Tini Bigs, Vessel (now defunct), his own cocktail show on the Small Screen Network, and a standing reputation as one of the world's great molecular mixologists. All this, it seems, has been leading to this moment: the imminent opening of his own bar.

The glue to any good neighborhood is, of course, its neighborhood bar. Green Lake has The Latona, Phinney Ridge has The Park Pub, South Park would be lost without Loretta's, and the epicenter of Columbia City is Lottie's.

Two Frenchy-French spots open today, one of which is simply frosting on what's already a thoroughly convincing "Little Paris" in Seattle.Surely a croissant taste-test of the luxuriously buttery ones at Inez Patisserie and the flaky ones at the newly opened second location of Belle Epicurean needs to happen.

It's almost just a cruel and torturous thing to start enjoying these now, when the summer dresses have already been replaced by fall arrivals on the racks and we're trying to face facts that we're in the final sunny stretches of summer already. But I'm going to milk it for every last drop of Vitamin D I can get before being forced to take it in capsule form, and even then you can bet I'll be washing them down with these: Summer cocktails made with infused waters.

Today I accidentally referred to the 12th Avenue Festival as the 12th Avenue Food Festival in conversation. Same difference, if you ask me. There's so, so much good to eat on that street.This Sunday, from noon until 6pm, 12th Avenue between Madison and Pike Streets will shut down so that hungry folks like you and I can eat ourselves silly.

There's a whole lot of to-do about this Saturday's Seattle release of Dry Fly Bourbon, which is being billed as "the first-ever commercially produced bourbon in Washington State." Half of the limited-release production of 480 bottles hit the streets last week in Spokane, where Dry Fly is based. Dry Fly distiller Patrick Donovan tells me that when he showed up for work that morning at 6 a.m., there was already a line of 200 people at the door and every $65 bottle was gone within two hours.

Look out, Ballard: Phinney Ridge is giving you a run for your money! At least when it comes to new restaurants. A year ago it was all Ballard all the time (Walrus, Staple), but this summer it's all about the Ridge. I mean that literally: The Ridge Restaurant, from the owners of Prost! and Nickerson Street Saloon, will be supremely kid-friendly, from the pizza and sandwich menu to the large tables and shuffleboard table in back. The opening is set for early September, and they’ll serve both lunch and dinner.